Thursday, November 8, 2012

Didn’t
someone tell the GOP that bad déjà vu sucks! Don’t get me wrong, I so wanted
Romney to win. He wasn’t who many conservatives wanted but they stood with him
when he won the Republican nomination for President. To be honest, I don’t
think that any of the other candidates would have done any better. Romney is a
moderate but he didn’t have a strong enough conservative brand. The Obama
campaign did a better job in a way of branding Romney than the Republications.
Many found it hard to connect with Romney. I know choosing a candidate because
you could see yourself having a beer, etc., with the person doesn’t make that
person the best candidate for the job but people do want to believe that the
President actually cares about them. President Obama did a great job convincing
people that he cares even when his actions didn’t match was being said.

The
other issue is that “conservative” needs new branding. There needs to be people
that can effectively rebrand what conservative is instead of what people now
believe it to mean. If the tape is not changed, conservatism will stay a
negative word. Conservatives need to take back the narrative. It is time for it
to be owned once again. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” needs to
be the conservative “why”. Why are you a conservative, why is conservatism good
for the country, why should conservatives affect the culture around them, etc. The
picture of what people believe conservatives are must be changed. The old, crotchety GOP male guard picture needs to
go and be replaced with who conservatives really are. Conservatives are like a bouquet,
one that has a variety of flowers that come in different colors.

Conservatives
need to take a hard look at what they believe, do they want the status quo or
is it time to change. If the GOP keeps doing the same thing over and over
again, they will get the same results. They “king makers” need to retire.
Conservatives need a party where all are welcomed, their voices are heard,
their contributions (talents/skills) accepted not pushed aside by others
because it is their turn to run things. You’re turn does not mean that the best
people are doing the best jobs. Also, there needs to be a shake up on how
things are done, policies implemented, their needs to be adaptability in how
things are done. Just because something was done one way before, doesn’t mean
that it is done the same way forever. If you stay in the same rut, the only
thing that grows is the depth of it.

The
next thing is vetting potential candidates better. Just because you want to run
doesn’t means that you are the right candidate. Conservatives must remember
that until the game changes, there will be Rule A for liberals and Rule B for
conservatives. Life isn’t fair, but if you can’t play the game as it is, then
don’t play. There also needs to be better prep done for new candidates so that
they can effectively speak about social issues.

Also, people need to stop, not
voting for someone because of one issue. I heard that people wouldn’t vote for
Romney because he was a Mormon, or couldn’t vote for someone because they weren’t
anti-abortion. Sorry, I would never vote for someone just because the candidate
was a Protestant or Catholic or anti-abortion. I am going to vote for the right
candidate for the job.

What is the answer? I
am not certain as too many people don’t want take the hard road. But conservatives need to have these conversations because if people don’t try, nothing will ever
change.

In what should be the final increase in cases of the meningitis outbreak, numbers have reached 424 sickened, ten of which are with joint infections.

Thirty-one people have died from the fungal meningitis.

These should be the final cases, as it has now been over forty-two days, the time in which it can take for meningitis to show itself, since the recall began.

All of the illnesses and deaths were caused by a contamination in anti
inflammatory steroid shots, most of which were given via the spine.

Seventy-six locations, in twenty-three states, were sent the shots, which were given to as many as fourteen thousand people.

New England Compounding Center made the shots,
and has complied completely with government officials who are conducting
the investigation.

Officials are investigating at least two other drugs, made by NECC, for possibilities that they too may have been contaminated.
Things are only getting worse for the company, and now the government,
as evidence comes out that they had been under investigation, for issues
in their processing, since 2002.

Their sister company, Ameridose LLC, which has the same owners, voluntarily recalled all of their products.

As we prepare to honor US veterans on Sunday, it needs to be
acknowledged that under the Obama administration, the backlog of
veterans’ disability claims jumped by 179 percent. That translates into 883,949 outstanding claims, according to Veterans Administration (VA) statistics.

This represents a near record high, with 65.8 percent of claims having been backlogged for 125 days or more.

Also tragic is the fact that unemployment
among young returning veterans is in the double digits. It is
unconciable that those returning from the front lines are arriving home
only to then face unemployment lines.

Outreach to our veterans is also important. What can you do? The Heritage Foundation has put together a brief list of suggestions:

Contact means actively reaching out to the veterans
and addressing specific needs that they and their families have. This
could mean visiting military hospitals or reaching out to local chapters
of national veterans’ organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars
or American Legion.

Comradeship is a key part of the healing process,
since no one understands the needs and thoughts of veterans like other
veterans. The volunteer organization Warriors and Quiet Waters addresses
this need by taking severely wounded veterans fly fishing in small
groups. In these locations and settings, former service members are free
to talk about their experiences with other veterans in an informal and
relaxed atmosphere.

Community is something volunteer organizations
can’t exist without. Warriors and Quiet Waters is located in Bozeman,
Montana, a community of around 40,000 people. With over 400 volunteers
and most of its funding coming from individuals and small businesses in
the area, Warriors and Quiet Waters demonstrates what a successful
community model looks like.